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Art and Soul

Art and Soul is the working title of my first finished novel. I’m currently submitting it to literary agents in the hope one of them will want to represent me and my work.

A 95,000-word contemporary romance, I hope Art and Soul will appeal to busy readers who have a few minutes each day to escape into an up-lifting book.

Art and Soul is the story of struggling single mother Becky Watson who longs to revive her career as a professional fairy godmother, working miracles to fix her clients’ lives. So when reclusive local artist Charlie Handren reluctantly hires her to fix his six-year creative slump, Becky is delighted to set him up with a come-back exhibition and Rachel, the woman of his dreams. But as the beautiful, yet brittle Rachel becomes Charlie’s muse, Becky is forced to wonder: will giving Charlie everything he wants mean denying herself a happy ending?

Not yet… My latest draft is still out with 2 beta readers. When I get their feedback I hope to make my “final” changes before starting on the road to publication. When I have my final version then I’ll definitely think about sharing a sample here! 🙂

Thank you! I really hope the literary agents I’m waiting to hear from agree with you 🙂 So far only friends have read the book and so you can never be sure if they’re being nice when they tell you they’ve enjoyed it! (although a couple of them are capable of being quite harsh, so I’m sure they’d have said if it was rubbish).

I know what you mean, I’ve had loads of positive feedback from friends about my blog but I am always doubtful because see all these people on xfactor & their friends have told them they should apply because they are brilliant singers & well, we’ve all seen the car crash tv that followed!! 😀 I’m sure your book is as brilliant as they say though, that plot taster has me desperate to read it already plus there is chocolate fudge cake in there! Win win in my book!! 🙂

Very interesting!! I think you have a great plot and the storyline is definitely attention-grabbing! There are so many new YA twists on fairy tales, but this is truly one of a kind. I’m glad it doesn’t focus on the actually princesses, and more on the side characters, like Cinderella’s fairy godmother. Good luck with finding an agent! I would love to read it when it is published (REMEMBER not if, but when 😀 )

Thank you! I did a major re-write at the start of this year after sending the first three chapters to an editor who gave me some very helpful feedback: cut chapters 1 and 2 and start the book with the events of chapter 3! I did what he said but, as I’m sure you can imagine, it had huge consequences for the rest of the book. I’ll be back to agent submissions (and more rejections, I’m sure) this summer.
Best of luck to you too 🙂

Hi! I just found you from a comment you left on Holly Kerr’s website…don’t you love the way one thing leads to another? Lol. Anyway…I am dying to know what is happening with your novel! You were asked to cut the dirst two chapters, were deep in revisions, and….

Hello!
I’m glad you found me 🙂
Unfortunately, I’m still submitting to agents with no luck. I got my most heartening and at the same time frustrating rejection a couple of months back which basically said, “Your writing is good and I love the sound of this and would ask to see more, but I just took on an author who writes the same stuff a week ago, so sorry”.
That’s the way it goes!
I’m going to try one more batch of agent submissions at the end of this month and if that comes to nothing I’ll send it to a few digital publishers.
And if that doesn’t help either, I’ll be getting it professionally edited and self-publishing!
Phew!

Oh this sounds adorable!! I can’t wait for it to get published!!! Hopefully very soon — and maybe you can offer some tips on publication for other aspiring writers like myself? It would be nice to hear about it from someone on the inside…or at least closer to the inside than me! Lol

Thank you so much!
I have to just keep going with the quest to get published 🙂 Eventually I’ll self-publish if I don’t have any luck going the traditional route because it would be a shame to leave all my hard work sitting in a computer file never seen by anyone!
If I do get published I’ll be shouting it from the rooftops – you’ll all be bored with me going on about it.
The very best of luck with your writing too 🙂